‘Operation Swamp’: The Timing Is Telling!

The events that followed the article “What Is Happening at Mersin Port” have made it necessary to look more carefully at the relations between drugs, the mafia and law enforcement in Turkey.

In the seizures at Mersin port, we tried to explain why the Interior Ministry in particular was not involved in the operations, whether these operations would continue, and that such a large quantity of drugs coming to Turkey was not normal.

The fact that a satellite tracking system had been placed inside the seized goods shows how far from simple this organisation is. With so much criminal evidence in plain view, the fact that the perpetrators whose names could be exposed as a result of this operation have still not been brought to light raises the suspicion that the organisation was planned by untouchable people and that these seized drugs were meant only to create a perception among the Turkish public.

When we examine certain drug cases, we always come across the same familiar scenarios. In “Operation Swamp”, carried out on 6 July and back on the agenda with the claims of Sedat Peker, who is accused of being a crime organisation leader, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a case against 73 people, among them Nejat Daş, alleged to be a drug baron, the former Sultanbeyli District Police Chief Necmettin Yüksek and some police officers.

In the Swamp case, the detained former police chief Necmettin Yüksek said: “I was introduced to Nejat Daş by Sadık Karayel of the AKP”. Karayel, denying Yüksek, said that a prosecutor and a retired governor had also been present at the meeting.

In this case we see that a drug baron aimed to establish a relationship with a police chief in order to strengthen the organisation and prevent its activities from being disrupted, and used a politician’s influence to achieve this.

*****

A similar story can be seen with Galip Öztürk, owner of Metro Turizm.

According to a report by İsmail Sağıroğlu published years ago in the newspaper Radikal, Galip Öztürk, born in 1965 in Ayvacık, Samsun, came to Istanbul in the 1980s at the age of 17-18 and began running a tea stall and toilets at the city bus terminal, then located in Topkapı. Wanting to get rich quickly, Öztürk, although he had no buses at all, rented an office at the bus station and founded a firm called ‘Star Turizm’. As the firm had no vehicles of its own, he made his living by taking commissions from vehicle owners and continuing to sell tea.

But rumour has it that Öztürk’s life changed in 1989 when the notorious drug smuggler Hurşit Yavaş became his partner. Under their agreement, Yavaş would provide the capital and Öztürk would run the business.

Hurşit Yavaş grew the company by buying many buses with money said to have been made from drugs. In 1994 he was caught in Italy and went to prison on drug trafficking charges. And during this period Galip Öztürk founded Metro Turizm.

After founding Metro Turizm, Galip Öztürk grew constantly. In 2007 Yücel Yamaner, one of his closest men, was caught with 40 kilos of drugs. Kudret Okumuş, his cousin, alleged to be his hitman, wrote letters to various places about the source of the ‘bloody’ and ‘dirty’ fortune. He confessed to the murders he had committed. Although Galip Öztürk’s name came up in all these events, he never got caught until the ‘Tea Seller’ operation by the Istanbul organised crime police. Galip Öztürk was first sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on the allegation that he had instigated the murder of Kuvvet Köseoğlu. The court later commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, taking into account his good conduct at the hearing. At the hearing on 19.04.2013 it was decided to release Galip Öztürk. Galip Öztürk, whose life sentence was later upheld, fled to Georgia as soon as he learned of the Court of Cassation’s decision.

The system Öztürk set up in his companies explains very well how he grew and why he never left a trace until now. Always choosing his companies’ boards from strategic people, Öztürk always brought people with influence in political circles into management. The names he worked with include influential politicians of the time as well as retired soldiers and police officers.

*****

As can be seen in both cases, the first tactic of those engaged in the drug trade is to establish relations with influential people who will accredit them or ensure that their crimes are concealed, and to use their influence.

Over time these people are drawn into the organisation through women, money, position or political power. Even if they are unaware at first, the gains they obtain as the process continues mean that the requests coming from these criminal organisations are not refused.

*****

Hüseyin Baybaşin, currently serving a life sentence in Vught Prison in the Netherlands for murder, drug trafficking and other charges, described in a 1997 interview with the journalist Cüneyt Özdemir on the programme 32. Gün, presented by Mehmet Ali Birand, how he obtained a report declaring him unfit for military service while in detention. And also that he did all his business together with certain police chiefs, district governors and politicians.

These developments show us that drug smugglers cannot operate without establishing very solid connections in the world of politics or bureaucracy.

So don’t you think it is telling, in terms of timing, that the large quantities of drugs that have surfaced lately were seized right after Sedat Peker brought drug, politician and mafia relations onto the agenda and made certain revelations? I think these seizures deserve to be considered once more in terms of who carried out the operations and the results that emerged.